The Sad End of the Los Angeles Times

Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire who purchased the Los Angeles Times for $500 million in 2018, said Monday he is taking the ailing newspaper public.

Speaking on “The Daily Show,” Soon-Shiong told host Jon Stewart the newspaper will take the company public over the course of the next year. The billionaire did not clarify when that would happen.

“We literally are going to take the LA Times public and allow it to be democratized and allow the public to have the ownership of this paper,” Soon-Shiong told Stewart. “We think over the next year we will. I’m working through (that) with an organization that’s putting that together right now.”

The move follows years of trouble at the Times. In early 2024, The Times cut 20% of its workforce, approximately 115 reporters, following the departure of the paper’s top editor, Kevin Merida.

In October, the Times came under fire after Soon-Shiong blocked the paper’s endorsement of then-Vice President Kamala Harris over Donald Trump for president, prompting the resignation of the paper’s editorial board editor, Mariel Garza.

Since then, the Times’ entire editorial board has resigned, with the last departure coming in February. According to NPR, around 20,000 subscribers canceled their digital subscriptions.

“Whether you’re right, left, Democrat or Republican, you’re an American,” he said on Monday.

Over the past year, the billionaire has criticized his own paper for what he described as veering “very left” and said he would balance the paper’s editorial board with voices that “trend right.”

The paper has had high-profile missteps in its transformations, such as a briefly-introduced AI-imbued tool that sympathized with the Ku Klux Klan.

Who would invest in a losing newspaper is a mystery to me.

“Monkey Trial”

ON THIS DAY: One hundred years ago, the so-called “Monkey Trial” ended in Dayton, Tennessee, with John T. Scopes found guilty of violating state law for teaching Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.

The conviction was later overturned. https://abcnews.visitlink.me/xS5yvM

The movie “Inherit the Wind” does an outstanding job of telling what happened. The names of the characters were changed but the story is factually correct. Who knows who the lawyers were in the actual trial? I do!

Is Freedom of the Press in Jeopardy?

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is an American late-night news talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015. CBS announced the show will end when the host’s contract runs out in 10 months. Colbert’s political commentary was a continuing criticism of Donald Trump.

Coincidentally, or not, Paramount Global, which owns CBS, is seeking regulatory approval from the Trump administration to sell itself to the Hollywood studio Skydance Media. (I’d never heard of it either.) An official statement, claiming that the “Late Show” cancellation represents “a purely financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night … not related in any way to the show’s performance, content.

Trump’s war on the media has been non-stop on every network accept Fox.

Newspapers and television outlets are under attack like never before. Yes as far back as Richard Nixon presidents have attacked the media. ABC News settled a defamation suit brought by Trump on Dec. 14, agreeing to donate $15 million to his presidential library and issue a statement. Trump’s lawsuit against CBS, filed in Texas in October, accuses the broadcaster of deceptively editing a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump has sued CNN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. The president has prevented The Associated Press from entering the Oval Office press events.

To stay on the good side of Trump both Jeff Bezos owner of the Washington Post and Patrick Soon-Shiong owner of the Los Angeles Times both stopped the endorsement of Kamala Harris. NPR and PBS rely on government subsidies and are likely limiting their criticism of the Trump administration.

You could have asked the question ‘Is freedom of the press in jeopardy?’ Sadly dictators do not allow opposing opinions.

The TACO

The TACO meme is so perfect. Because Trump, as all bullies do, does chicken out. A lot! And not just to China and the tariffs.

The latest news on tariffs is Trump’s threat on Russia. Trump announced Russia will face 100% “secondary” tariffs if there isn’t a ceasefire deal between the country and Ukraine in 50 days. “We want to see it end, and I’m disappointed in President Putin because I thought we would’ve had a deal two months ago but it doesn’t seem to get there.” 

Other recent threats include a 50% tariff on Brazil for the trial against its former president. Mr. Trump’s pledge to place tariffs on imports from Brazil is partly in retaliation for what he considers a “witch hunt” against his political ally, the former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who is facing trial for attempting a coup.

It should be obvious that Trump sees tariffs as his best way to influence world order. He doesn’t see his method as chickening out. He sees his threats of getting his way as success.

Trump’s Border Czar Sparks Firestorm of Anger By Telling Fox News ICE Can Detain Based on ‘Physical Appearance’

As reported on Fox News

President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, sparked a wave of angry reactions on Friday after he told Fox News that border patrol doesn’t need probable cause to detain suspected illegal migrants.

“I’ve got to get your reaction to this Biden-appointed federal judge out in Los Angeles, apparently expected today to issue a temporary restraining order, halting your lawful operations. She says, ‘I think it’s important for the court not to burden otherwise lawful law enforcement activities.’ Your reaction there,” asked Fox’s Griff Jenkins.

“Look, people need to understand, ICE officers and border patrol, they don’t need probable cause to walk up to somebody, briefly detain them, and question them. They just need this: totality of the circumstances, right? They just got through the observation, you know, get articulable facts based on the location, the occupation, their physical appearance, their actions,” Homan replied, adding:

Like a uniformed border patrol officer walks up to them at, for instance, a Home Depot. And they got all these articulable facts, plus the person walks away or runs away. Agents are trained on what they need to detain somebody temporarily and question them. It’s not probable cause, it’s reasonable suspicion. We’re trained on that.

Every agent, every six months, gets Fourth Amendment training over and over again. These officers are really good at what they do, and if the judge makes a decision that’s against what these officers are trained and what the law is based upon, then they’re going to shut down the operation. I think that’s their endgame. They want ICE to stop doing this, but if they base it on the rule of law, they’re going to find out border patrol and ICE is doing exactly what they’re going to do in accordance with law.

ICE has been accused of racial profiling in recent weeks, leading to DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin to put out a statement this week, saying, “Any claims that individuals have been ‘targeted’ by law enforcement because of their skin color are disgusting and categorically FALSE.”

California Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) replied, “And there you have it. Under the Trump Administration, ICE and Border Patrol are being empowered to stop and question you based solely on how you look. No probable cause. No real reason. Just your “physical appearance.” That’s not justice—it’s profiling.”

So today it is brown skinned people from south of the US border but tomorrow it could be Chinese, or it could be Jews.